"Matt McBride, a seemingly happily married man, remembers his first victim. He was a boy when the mutilated body of the pretty, popular, outgoing teenager was found in the desolate New Jersey Pine Barrens. Matt's memory of the atrocity haunts him still; he has long felt guilty at not having been able to prevent it, although he'd hardly known the girl. Now another attractive young woman has disappeared. Matt knew this victim, too -- and just possibly he knew her more intimately than he can acknowledge. By degrees Matt becomes obsessed with guilt, he can neither comprehend nor allay. The fabric of his seemingly happy marriage begins to unravel. His increasingly erratic behaviour heightens police suspicions. It also draws official attention away from an artist - a man of tortured memory - to a shattering confrontation."@en
"Matt McBride est persuadé qu'il aurait pu empêcher la mort d'une jolie jeune fille retrouvée dans un ravin. Quelques années plus tard, une femme de son entourage disparaît, réveillant sa culpabilité. Il s'interroge sur son mariage et adopte un comportement bizarre qui éveille la curiosité de la police. De son côté, Matt pense être sur la piste d'un tueur en série."
"As Rosamond Smith, Joyce Carol Oates turns her literary skills to the startling, complex tale of a serial killer and the stories of the people that his ghastly crimes touch and transforms."@en
"New Jersey real estate agent Matt McBride fixates on catching a serial killer."@en